Month: June 2019

Serving and Scoring

The ball can be served either over or underhand, but it has to be served from behind the end line until it is touched. The ball has to be easily seen by the opponents when served, and it has to be returned with a bump (no setting or attacking allowed). The ball is allowed to touch the net, provided it falls on the opposite side of the court. The first serve of the game is given to the loser of the last game, or a volley is used to determine who will serve.

A point is scored every time the ball touches the floor (rally scoring), and the game is played until one team reaches 25 points (with a 2 point lead). The defense is awarded a point every time the ball touches the ground on the offensive side, the ball is sent out of bounds by the offensive team, or the ball is served into the net. The offense wins a point every time the ball hits the ground on the defensive side or the ball is sent out of play by the defensive team.

Rotation and Gameplay

Every time a team wins the volley, they are required to rotate. The rotation is always clockwise, and there always has to be between four and six players per side.

Each side can only hit the ball three times before it clears the net, and a player cannot hit the ball twice in a row (this is not counting the block). The ball can touch the net and stay in play, and a point is awarded if the ball hits a boundary line. A hit is considered legal if the ball is touched by any part of the player above his waist, provided the ball doesn’t visibly stop moving.

Should two players or more touch the ball at the same time, it is only counted as a single play but neither player is permitted to touch the ball until another player has. The serve cannot be attacked or blocked, and only the front line players can change positions.

Violations and The Ball

Violations include:

Placing the foot over or on the line while serving

Illegally hitting the volleyball

Not sending the ball over the net at the serve

Touching the net

Reaching the arms or hands over the net (except when following through on a spike or blocking)

Reaching beneath the net

Serving in an incorrect order

Spiking or blocking from anywhere in front of the 10-foot line (if you are in the back line)

First day

Second day

Bulgarian split squats (3 x 10)

Chair rockets (4 x 15)

Lunge jumps (3 x 15)

(You should alternate day 1 and day 2 every two to three days, depending on what your body is telling you i.e. soreness)

This would a good place to start. Just make sure you’re eating the proper diet afterwards! If you don’t know what to eat, you should look into muscle building nutrition, it’s very basic stuff, but I’ll explain the surface.

Muscle building involves tearing down micro fibres in order to rebuild them stronger than before. So to rebuild them, you need protein. Not only that, there are many other foods you should be eating to speed the process up, and many other foods you should be avoiding that could be hindering your success. Some of these foods are sugar, saturated fats, and according to some individuals, gluten. Stay away from these and eat foods like salmon, broccoli and bananas and you should be good to go. Other than that, stay away from soda drinks and replenish your body with water before and after your workouts.

The Volleyball Court

Sand volleyball courts and indoor courts are fairly different in size. Beach courts are actually smaller than indoor courts. Indoor courts have a rule where players in the back row cannot advance behind a certain point in the court to hit the ball, whereas sand volleyball players can hit the ball from anywhere on their side of the net. The reasoning behind the smaller sand court size may be that getting any traction and running in sand is much more difficult than on a hard surface. A smaller court keeps the ball in play longer, keeping rallies more entertaining and face-paced.

Players Per Team

With the larger court size for indoor volleyball, it reasons that a larger amount of people would be needed to cover the area. Indoor volleyball requires six players per team, or side. Each player has a specialized position that rotates and switches throughout the game. Sand volleyball is usually played with two-person teams. One player hits from the left side of the court, one hits from the right. The serve is rotated between the two players. There are no specialized positions and each player is usually well-versed in all hits, blocks and digs. At competition-level sand volleyball, players can have dedicated positions such as one may block and one may dig, but both could still hit.

The Volleyball

The ball itself is one of the differences between indoor and outdoor volleyball. Indoor balls are made of leather and are somewhat heavier than balls used outdoors. These heavier indoor balls can be hit harder and tend to move more quickly than an outdoor ball. Sand volleyballs are bigger, softer and less heavy than indoor balls. The lighter weight helps them float through the air better, allowing more experienced players to use the weather to their advantage.

Keeping Score

Indoor volleyball has matches made up of five sets or games. Games are played until the first team reaches 25 points, and are declared the winners of that game. Three sets win the match. If both teams have won two sets, a tiebreaker game is played to 15 points. Teams switch sides after each game.

Sand volleyball has matches made up of only three sets or games. Games are played until the first team reaches 21 points, and if a tiebreaker game is necessary, it is played until 15 points.

In both versions, a game must be won by a minimum two-point margin.

Touches

The way the ball is touched or handled by players is different between the two types of games. Indoor volleyball allows players to block the ball without it counting as one of the three allowed hits for each team. Sand volleyball counts a block as one of the three hits allowed.

Indoor volleyball also allows open-hand tips, or dinks, which send the ball just slightly over the net, however sand volleyball does not allow these types of moves.

If you enjoy volleyball, then it probably doesn’t matter whether you play it indoors or outdoors. In fact you may find that you do prefer one way over the other, but just getting to play the game you love any time of year is a big benefit. Educating yourself about both versions of the sport will help your game-play, and hopefully your enjoyment of the sport as well.

Is The Monthly/Yearly Commitment Worth It?

If you really want to throw down your first dunk you have to analyze your situation. If you can’t grab or at least touch the rim of a 10 ft basketball hoop, then you probably have months if not years of training to go through in order to start dunking on a consistent basis.

If you can grab the rim or at least touch the rim right now, you could throw down your first dunk in three months or less, with the right training and work ethic.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how long it takes. It took me 10 years to reach my goal and it was worth the wait.

I’ll admit that there were times when I wish I was naturally gifted with amazing vertical jump ability and there were times when I wished that I didn’t have to work so hard to increase my vertical jump.

But like I said, at the end of the day it was all worth it.

It is much more rewarding to achieve something knowing that you had to work for it rather than it being handed to you.

Belief + Consistent Action = Success

If you want to dunk a basketball it is up to you.

Unless you were gifted with amazing genes, or a God-given talent, you will have to take matters into your own hands.

Believe that you will dunk one day. Visualize yourself dunking. Then do whatever it takes to make that visualization come to reality.

The last thing you want to do is start making excuses. Anybody can do that. Success comes to those who believe in themselves and take action.

Some players think that by trying to hide where they are aiming with their serve will increase their surprise “attack” on the opponent team. This could not be farther from the truth. You need to face your target in order for your serve to be fully effective. If you align your body to the direction you are aiming at and balance your body, you will generate a powerful consistent serve.

The ball toss is another very important factor in achieving great serving accuracy. If your ball toss is low, you will end up making contact with the ball when you are off balance and your serve will end up at the net. To improve your ball toss, create a habitual routine for yourself, a system. Toss the ball in the same manner every single time. Remember that the toss must be high enough to allow yourself to extend your arm.

Finally, you want to make sure you make a solid contact with the ball. This means you engage the palms of your hands no matter which serve you choose to do. Be sure to practice where your hand makes contact with the ball. This will help you understand the different types of serve and where you need to make contact with the ball in order to vary your serves in a game.